Justice N Kirubakaran granted the interim injunction on a plea by the film's producer S Thanu to prevent illegal downloading of the movie through about 180 websites and "countless unknown sites".

Thanu had sought a direction to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to issue instructions to all service providers to block sites offering illegal downloads. Tamil Nadu Anti-Piracy Cell had been included as a respondent to ensure compliance.

Counsel had submitted before the judge yesterday that Rs 100 crore had been spent on producing "Kabali", with about 3,500 technicians involved in the work.

He said the film was slated to hit thousands of screens worldwide on July 22 and interim injunction was a must to save the producer for a minimum of 15 days from the release date.

He also produced several DVDs of other films which were recorded and sold immediately on their release and alleged that state and central authorities were turning a blind eye to infringement of copyright. There was a need for an urgent order of injunction to check the menace, he said.

Counsel charged Telecom Regulatory Authority of India with not taking action despite having the technology to block websites functioning from foreign soil and had said the regulator should take immediate steps to block them.

He submitted that the producers had identified 225 "rogue" websites and other high courts which heard similar cases had directed that they be blocked.

Justice Kirubakaran had asked Assistant Solicitor General Su. Sreenivasan, who appeared on behalf of the Centre and TRAI, whether such illegal downloads could be stopped or not and had said he would pass an order on this.